10 years of lyrikline

Here's a press release from the wonderful Berlin-based poetry website lyrikline:

26 – 31 October

world wide poetry: 10 years of lyrikline.org

Week of events in Berlin

We are celebrating lyrikline.org, come and celebrate with us! For ten years now, the website for poetry has been seeing to it that international poetry is freely available and accessible everywhere. Reason enough to celebrate with a whole week of events opened by German President Horst Köhler. Sixteen Embassies and cultural institutions are joining the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin in organising a week of poetry readings throughout Berlin to mark this occasion. And if you can’t get to Berlin, never mind. You can listen to the final event of the week on 31 October 2009 at 20 hours CET in a live streaming in the Internet, as well as having the opportunity to take part in a special chat. Berlin-based poet Steffen Popp will be commentating the event live on Twitter.

lyrikline.org has been an ongoing success story since its inception in 1999. There is a huge audience for poetry, even if book publications and sales are in a world-wide decline and publishers are ever more wary of it. There are now 600 poets online on lyrikline.org with 5,500 poems in 50 languages, with translations into 48 languages. Partners in 40 countries collaborate in lyrikline.org, which began as an initiative by the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin.

The week of events to mark “10 years of lyrikline.org” is under the patronage of the EU Commissioner for Multilingualism, Leonard Orban.



The week of events is taking place in cooperation with: the Embassy of the Republic of Argentina, the Embassy of the Republic of Estonia, the Embassy of the Republic of Finland, the Embassy of the Republic of Iceland, the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia, the Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia, the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Flemish Representation, the Greek Culture Foundation, Berlin branch, the Ramon Llull Institute – Berlin, the Italian Cultural Institute, Berlin, The Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Titu Maiorescu Romanian Cultural Institute, Berlin, the Slovakian Institute, Berlin and the Québec Government Office in Berlin.

With kind support from:

The Working Group of Literary Societies, Foreign Office, Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs, Prussian Maritime Foundation, the Representation of the European Commission in the FRG, The Heinrich-Böll Foundation, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Mandala Hotel



Programme of the week of events to mark 10 years of lyrikline.org



Mon. 26 October

Password: Poetry

Opening

7,30 pm, Palais, Kulturbrauerei, Schönhauser Allee 36, 10435 Berlin, Entrance free, Advance reservation required at mail@literaturwerkstatt.org till 21th October

Featuring Lebogang Mashile (South Africa), Monika Rinck (Germany) Music: Aki Takase (Japan)
In the presence of German President Horst Köhler

Tues. 27 October

Greece: The Blast of Time

6.30 pm Greek Culture Foundation, Wittenbergplatz 3a, 10789 Berlin, Entrance free

Featuring Dionýsis Kapsális (Greece), Moderated by: Anna Lazaridou


Estonia/Finland/Iceland/Norway

North-North-East: a Nordic-Baltic evening

8 pm Nordic Embassies, Felleshus, Rauchstrasse 1, 10787 Berlin, Entrance free, please reserve a seat at info@nordischebotschaften.org

Featuring Simen Hagerup (Norway), Lauri Otonkoski (Finland), Steinunn Sigurðardóttir (Iceland) Elo Viiding (Estonia)



Weds. 28 October

Croatia: Mirrored Words

6 pm Embassy of the Republic of Croatia, Ahornstrasse. 4, 10787 Berlin

Entrance free. Please reserve a seat on 030-2192-5514

Featuring Branko Cegec (Croatia),: Dieter M. Gräf (Germany), Karen Kiwus (Germany), Zvonko Maković (Croatia) and Andriana Škunca (Croatia)

Moderated by: Alida Bremer



Flanders/Netherlands:

Poetry Below Sea-Level

8 pm Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Klosterstrasse 50, 10179 Berlin

Entry free, please reserve a seat at: bln-pcz@minbuza.nl

Featuring: Luuk Gruwez (Flanders), Ramsey Nasr (The Netherlands), Victor Schiferli (The Netherlands) and Mark van Tongele (Flanders)

Music: Ma Rain (The Netherlands)



Thurs. 29 October

Slovakia: Electromagnet Love

6 pm Berlin Slovakian Institute, Zimmerstrasse 27, 10969 Berlin. Entrance free

Featuring Martin Solotruk (Slovakia) Music: David Kollar (Slovakia) Moderated by: Angela Repka


Catalonia/Québec

The Poetry of Obstinacy: reading and discussion
8 pm Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, Knaackstrasse 97, 10435 Berlin, Entrance free
Featuring Nicole Brossard (Québec), Teresa Pascual (València) Translators: Juana Burghardt (Argentina), Tobias Burghardt (Germany), Odile Kennel (Germany)
Moderated by: Frank Heibert

Fri. 30 October
Macedonia: On the borders of poetry
5 pm Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia, Koenigsallee 2, 14193 Berlin
Entrance free
Featuring: Claudia Keelan (USA), Nikola Madzirov (Macedonia), Zvonko Maković (Croatia) and Uljana Wolf (Germany / USA)

Slovenia: The Magic of Slovenian Poetry

6.30 pm Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia, Hausvogteiplatz 3-4, 10117 Berlin

Entrance free

Featuring: Milan Dekleva (Slovenia), Gregor Podlogar (Slovenia)


Argentina / Italy:

Transeurope Hotel & Argentinian Visions

8 pm Instituto Cervantes, Rosenstrasse 18, 10178 Berlin, 2576180

Entrance free

Featuring: Bruno Capezzuoli (Italy), Luigi Cinque (Italy), Silvana Franzetti (Argentina), Daniel Samoilovich (Argentina)

Moderated by Timo Berger & Rike Bolte


Romania: POETRY LIVE – The Long Night of Young Romanian Poetry

10 pm (expected to last until 3 am), Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, Knaackstr. 97, 10435 Berlin

Entrance free

Featuring: Constantin Acosmei (Romania), Svetlana Carstean (Romania), Rita Chirian (Romania), Gabi Eftimie (Romania), Sorin Gherguţ (Romania), Vasile Leac (Romania), Stefan Manasia (Romania), Vlad Moldovan (Romania), Ioana Nicolae (Romania), Olga Stefan (Romania) Moderated by Răzvan Ţupa


Sat. 31 October
world wide poetry

Finale

8 pm Tape Club, Heidestrasse 14, 10557 Berlin (Near main station and Hamburger Bahnhof gallery), Entrance EUR 5/3 with conceesions, tickets on the door
Featuring Nicole Brossard (Québec), Babangoni wawa Chisale (Malawi), Elke Erb (Germany), Claudia Keelan (USA), Nikola Madzirov (Macedonia), Thomas Möhlmann (Netherlands), Joseph Molapong (Namibia), Remi Raji (Nigeria), Daniel Samoilovich (Argentina), Lutz Seiler (Germany)
Moderated by: Knut Elstermann (journalist based in Berlin)

Lyrikline

New poets on lyrikline recently include the American poet Christian Hawkey. And there are, as usual, many new translations into English for your reading pleasure: Karol Chmel (Slovakia), Mária Ridzoňová Ferenčuhová (Slovakia), Michal Habaj (Slovakia), Katarína Kucbelová (Slovakia), Branko Maleš (Croatia), Sonja Manojlović (Croatia), Sibila Petlevski (Croatia), Adam Pluszka (Poland), Peter Šulej (Slovakia), Gonçalo M. Tavares (Portugal), Torild Wardenær (Norway).

More Dieter M. Gräf on Lyrikline

I have three more translations of poems by Dieter M. Gräf up at lyrikline:

Vézelay Jihad
The Naked Ginsberg
Zuni NY

I especially like "The Naked Ginsberg"!

Feltrinelli's Ashtray II

Yet another of my translations of poems by Dieter M. Gräf is up at lyrikline. This one is called "Feltrinelli's Ashtray II".

Someday I'll make some time to update my links on the right of this page!

lyrikline update for October

Among the many new poems and translations on lyrikline in the past few months have been the following English translations of poets:

Ali Abdollahi (Iran), Dieter M. Gräf (Germany) and Nâhid Kabiri (Iran)

And I just found this list of new poets who write in English:
Erín Moure
Karen Solie
Paul Vermeersch
Ken Babstock
Suzanne Buffam
Tim Lilburn

The Sound of the Shots on Lake Como

There's another of my translations of poems by Dieter M. Gräf up at lyrikline: "The Sound of the Shots on Lake Como." Click on the English title in the right-hand frame to see the translation.

New Dieter M. Gräf translations

I've got two new translations of poems by Dieter M. Gräf up at lyrikline:

Typhoon
The Pockmarked Man Kills W.

These links get you to the German versions; you then have to click at the top where the English version is linked.

I've got a few more to do for lyrikline in the coming weeks, so if you like these, keep an eye out for more. (Or buy Tousled Beauty and/or Tussi Research!)

Lyrikline update

New English sounds and poems at the wonderful lyrikline site in February 2008 are "the American sound poet Charles Amirkhanian" and new English translations of poems by Polish poet Tadeusz Dąbrowski (Poland) and German poets Ursula Krechel and Lutz Seiler.

If you have not checked out lyrikline before, do so: poems and translations in over 40 languages, plus audio of many of the originals, as read by the poets.

Lyrikline update

I just received the latest newsletter from the wonderful lyrikline site. There are new translations into English of Klaus Rifbjerg (Denmark), Lars Gustafsson (Sweden), Norbert Hummelt (Germany), Vladas Braziūnas (Lithuania), and Steffen Popp (Germany). The latest English-language poet to be added is Gerald Stern.

If you have never checked out lyrikline, do so: a huge stock of recordings of poems in a tremendous variety of languages (46 and counting!).